- Joined
- May 1, 2017
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Hey guys, I have a question.
My century 3 autopilot, in my seneca 2, from time to time, does a runaway trim when I first turn it on. Every once in a while (done it on 2 seperate occasions, actually), I'll turn on the altitude hold and about 2 seconds after engaging it, it starts a runaway with the trim. Once it trimmed nose down, the other time, trim nose up. I'll immediately turn it off and the aircraft will drop out the autopilot trim and I jerk the nose in the opposite direction of the runaway. The problem will persist the entire flight, leaving me without autopilot altitude control. Cycling the avionics master and the autopilot does nothing. I'll go back days later, for the next flight, and it will be fine.
I was looking to have the autopilot overhauled, but when I called my local avionics shop, who advertised support for the century 3, they told me that contacting the manufacturer is hit and miss and it may be difficult to have that overhaul performed because getting parts is becoming unreliable. They told me that their guy who specializes in the century 3 was not in that day and took my name and number, saying they would get back to me. Weeks later still waiting.
I like my autopilot. If at all possible, I'd rather spend a few thousand dollars and have it competely overhauled versus $8-10k for the new model. Does anyone have information about my dilemma or know of a shop near central Texas that can do this type of work?
My century 3 autopilot, in my seneca 2, from time to time, does a runaway trim when I first turn it on. Every once in a while (done it on 2 seperate occasions, actually), I'll turn on the altitude hold and about 2 seconds after engaging it, it starts a runaway with the trim. Once it trimmed nose down, the other time, trim nose up. I'll immediately turn it off and the aircraft will drop out the autopilot trim and I jerk the nose in the opposite direction of the runaway. The problem will persist the entire flight, leaving me without autopilot altitude control. Cycling the avionics master and the autopilot does nothing. I'll go back days later, for the next flight, and it will be fine.
I was looking to have the autopilot overhauled, but when I called my local avionics shop, who advertised support for the century 3, they told me that contacting the manufacturer is hit and miss and it may be difficult to have that overhaul performed because getting parts is becoming unreliable. They told me that their guy who specializes in the century 3 was not in that day and took my name and number, saying they would get back to me. Weeks later still waiting.
I like my autopilot. If at all possible, I'd rather spend a few thousand dollars and have it competely overhauled versus $8-10k for the new model. Does anyone have information about my dilemma or know of a shop near central Texas that can do this type of work?
